Honoring Senator Cory Booker, Recipient of the Good Guy Award

U.S. Senator Cory Booker is connected to the people he serves and the challenges they face every day. He has spent 16 years in public office focused on addressing the vital needs of New Jersey families by putting partisanship aside to get things done.

Cory was raised in Harrington Park in Bergen County, New Jersey. A star athlete at Northern Valley High School in Old Tappan, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University, where he also played for the football team. While at Stanford, he ran a crisis hotline for students and worked with disadvantaged youth in East Palo Alto. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he managed a student tutoring and mentoring program in a disadvantaged community. Cory went on to Yale Law School, where he helped lead free legal clinics for New Haven residents.

After earning his law degree, Cory moved to Newark, where he served on the Newark City Council and lived for eight years in Brick Towers, a low-income housing complex. In 2006, he was elected to his first of two terms as mayor of Newark. He now owns a home and lives in Newark's Central Ward community.

Cory won a special U.S. Senate election in October 2013 to complete the term of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg and became New Jersey's first African-American senator. In November 2014, he won reelection to the Senate. Cory serves on the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation, Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Environment and Public Works Committees.

In his short time in the Senate, Cory has worked across the aisle to sponsor sweeping legislation to reform the nation's broken criminal justice system, passed legislation to ensure veterans with traumatic brain injuries received the medical care they deserve, and has fought to ensure women receive fair treatment in the workplace and full control over their personal health decisions.

WPCNJ, founded in 1972, is a chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus and is the authoritative voice for women in New Jersey politics. WPCNJ is a multi-partisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in elected and appointed positions in government, protecting reproductive freedom, and promoting equal rights for women.